


A Little Less Broken

by ProblemWithTrouble



Series: 00Q [14]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Misunderstandings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 22:00:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11930148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProblemWithTrouble/pseuds/ProblemWithTrouble
Summary: “Broken things don’t get to ask to be loved.” The words hit Bond harder than he expected.





	A Little Less Broken

“Broken things don’t get to ask to be loved.” The words hit Bond harder than he expected. The rejection he had seen coming. He had been gone a long time and Moneypenny had warned him that Q never quite got over Bond turning his back on them. What he hadn’t expected was for Q - beautiful, kind, extraordinary Q - to be so cruel. 

“Of course,” Bond said through the pain in his chest. His mind emptied and he felt every emotion bled out of him. He knew he should turn around, should walk away but he couldn’t. There was a touch of sadness to Q’s face that allowed an anger to find its way back into him. The broken, desperate look made Bond’s hands clench at his sides and it felt just a little good to watch Q struggle. After allowing himself another moment to watch Q struggle Bond turned, left, and didn’t look back.

* * *

Hours later Bond sat in the hotel room he was calling home while MI6 decided if they would take him back now that he had left Madeleine and taken out the threat that had called him out of retirement in the first place. He wasn’t drunk, even though he wished he were; the glass that he had poured after returning from Q-Branch stared back at him from the coffee table. Something Madeleine would have called growth was stopping him from actually drinking it. Bond called it obnoxious. 

A faint knock and Bond shifted his glare to the offending wooden door, but made no move to answer it. The following knock was more harsh and insistent. Gun in hand Bond opened the door to see a very angry quartermaster glaring back at him. 

“Alright, James, I wasn’t going to make a scene in front of my branch but I am too angry to let this go unanswered. There’s enough of that shit between us already,” Q said as he pushed his way into the room.. 

Bond shut the door with a soft click but that was as far as his self-control could take him. “You’re angry? I don’t remember being the one saying you didn’t deserve love.”

“Oh did your own words hurt your feelings? I’m sorry to have pointed out your hypocrisy,” Q snapped at him. The smaller man didn’t seem to have a grasp on his own self-preservation instincts because he crowded into the agent’s person space, his finger poking into Bond’s chest. “You don’t get to come into my branch after _everything_ and ask me to dinner.” 

“Because I’m too broken. Did you have something new to add or are you just going to repeat yourself,” Bond’s voice was scathing and rough as he forced out the words. 

Some of the anger behind Q’s glasses faded and was replaced by confusion. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“Did you hit your head on the way over to yell at me for no reason?” Bond asked. He took a step around Q and picked up the glass of whiskey. Maybe not as much growth as the good doctor would have thought. 

Q plucked it out of his hand and from the way he barely looked at it Bond wasn’t sure that he even knew he did it.

“I came here because you had the audacity to be angry when I threw your own words back at you.” 

“You and I obviously have very different memories of _every time_ we have interacted,” Bond said. They had migrated into each other’s personal space again and he crowded up a little closer. 

Q’s eyes flashed fury. “Did you forget when you took the DB-5 from me?” Q made an imitation of Bond’s voice and said “Broken things should stay with the broken.”

“I was talking about me!” 

The supposed genius blinked at him twice, slow. He took half a step back and adjusted his glasses needlessly before speaking. “I have spent two years trying to prove to myself that I’m not broken for no reason.”

“You’re not broken, Q.” 

“I know that,” Q snapped like he had interrupted a conversation he wasn’t supposed to hear. “I knew that then and I know that know… I didn’t think you knew that.” 

“You deserved – deserve – better than me,” Bond said. “After what you said when you handed me the keys I needed you to know that I was leaving because it was best for everyone that I was gone.”

“You left so you could fuck Dr. Swann don’t pretend it was more than that,” Q shot at him. “And now you’re back because she doesn’t want you anymore because you decided to come play hero so you’re falling back to the only person you thought would still be waiting for you.”

Bond took another step closer. Q took a step back so they wouldn’t touch and found himself with his back up against the wall. Bond’s hand slammed into the wall next to Q’s head and he leaned in close enough that he could feel Q holding his breath. “Aren’t you?”

Not for the first time Q surprised him. He laughed. Q threw his head back and laughed in Bond’s face. “You’re arrogance is astounding.” 

“Isn’t that what you love about me?” 

“Love is a strong and incorrect description of what I’m feeling right now.” Q grabbed the agent’s wrist lightly and pushed it back at Bond, slow and deliberate, never breaking eye contact. He glared at Bond but there was still a smile that he couldn’t quite keep hidden.

“You don’t have to love me yet, it’s just dinner,” Bond said, a smirk starting to form. 

Q was silent for a long time and Bond braced himself for a sigh and something along the lines of “Two years is a long time,” but it didn’t come. Q just kept watching him. 

Bond waited for Q to make up his mind. After all, two years is a long time, Bond could survive two minutes.

Finally, Q decided to answer him. “It better be nice, and you’re paying.”

Bond lets himself grin for a second before offering his arm to Q, who ignored it and opened the door. 

“And I don’t put out of a first date.”

“Of course.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Please forgive any errors, this one wasn't beta read. 
> 
> Kudos=Love  
> Comments = More love (even though I am the actual worst at responding.)


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